Daniele Milone

Energy and Economic Comparison of Different Conditioning System among Traditional and Eco-Sustainable Building

The use of bioclimatic principles can reduce energy demands and CO2 emissions in the building sector [1-. Costs are one of the most important barriers to a widespread adoption of the green architecture technologies [4-. The aim of this study is to compare the energy and economic performances of two buildings: a real residential bioclimatic building located in Cinisi (a small town near Palermo, Sicily) and an imaginary residential building supposed having the same geographical location, cubature, shape and orientation as the bioclimatic building but built by conventional building materials. The tools used for this study were TRNSYS and HOMER

Design of Bilateral Switched Reluctance Linear Generator to Convert Wave Energy: Case Study in Sicily

The aim of this work is a case study of the adaptation bilateral switched reluctance linear generator to the exploitation of energy of the sea. This type of generator can be used to convert wave energy in electrical energy. In this paper we present an analytical sizing and FEM simulation. As for the results, analysis of the data extracted through the simulations it was possible to calculate the emf. The emf was calculated in two cases of motion of the slider: first hypothesis has set the constant speed while the second is a variable speed according to the law of an oscillatory motion of the sea.

Energy Savings through Integration of the Illumination Natural and Artificial, Using a System of Automatic Dimming: Case Study

The reduction of electrical energy consumption in buildings is a subject of great interest in the international scientific community. In buildings with a lot of available natural light, designed with large glazed surfaces, the artificial lighting system is often oversized and cannot be divided into segments to meet lighting demands during daylight hours.This article presents an experimental study, conducted in a university lecture hall that has a glazed surface covering the whole wall at one end, which provides a level of internal illumination that is only sufficient for the area next to the window itself, even when the outside lighting conditions are very bright. It is therefore necessary to turn on the artificial lighting system.The mathematical approach used in this paper has been successfully applied by the authors in other fields of science [1-2].Using an automatic dimmer system, the calibration of which is based on experimental measurements, the lighting is arranged in such a way as to illuminate the most disadvantaged areas of the room, and then to extend itself gradually to the whole of the room, over the period of time that the lecture hall is in use.

A Procedure to Evaluate the Indoor Global Quality by a Sub Objective-Objective Procedure

This paper proposes two complementary procedures for assessing the indoor global comfort: the first one, prevalently objective, is based on the acquisition of microclimate measured data and computed subjective values; the second one, that is purely subjective, uses a questionnaire drawn from the ISO/DP 10551 Recommendation. An application to some lecture-halls is here showed

Experimental Evidence on the Thermal Performance of Opaque Surfaces in Mediterranean Climate

The thermal insulation of buildings, intended as wrap feature which determines the dispersion of heat, the reference parameter is necessary to contain the thermal losses during the winter season. The transmittance of the opaque components, used as an indicator of the energy quality of a casing, together with the overall coefficient of dispersion, represents a proper descriptor of the behavior during the heating season. However, if a strong insulation in winter conditions brings only positive effects, the same cannot be said for the summer conditions. A high value of the insulation in the casing is convenient only when the gains free, either in the form of solar contribution that of endogenous heat, are controlled and restricted. From the national transposition of the 2002/91/CE legislation up to the 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings, performance values are set very restrictive transmittance of opaque surfaces that both of those transparent to the new buildings. The same does not happen for the thermophysical characteristics able to implement strategies for the control of solar radiation during the summer period, the fluctuations in external temperatures during the summer period. This article shows some experimental evidence of the effects on transmission rate and density of the opaque elements of the buildings carried out on a case study of a representative building of climate-Mediterranean summer: The study verify the results produced by increased insulation of the building envelope on energy performance of buildings during the summer through indicators such as temperature and energy consumption to maintain the same constant with respect to the prescribed values.

A Case Study to evaluate the indoor global quality

This paper proposes two complementary procedures for assessing the global quality comfort: the first one, prevalently objective, is based on the acquisition of microclimate measured data and computed subjective values; the second one, that is purely subjective, uses a questionnaire drawn from the ISO/DP 10551 Recommendation. An application to some lecture-halls and laboratories of the school is here showed.

Indoor Environmental Quality Survey: A Brief Comparison between Different Post Occupancy Evaluation Methods

Building occupants are important factor in giving information on indoor conditions such as comfort, productivity, building performance and occupants ́ health. Even that, being their appraisal mainly based on subjective judgments, it is difficult to set up a standard and objective method for this purpose. The present work aimed to describe, analyze and compare the most common tests on this topic, in order to highlight critical, failings and strengths.

Regional Policies for Sustainability in the Mediterranean Countries: The Role of a Proper HVAC System Maintenance in Museums

Italy, like several Mediterranean countries, holds a very large number of cultural artifacts that are often exhibited and saved inside museums. Museums are usually part of historical buildings that, not rarely, originally had a different intended use and that have been currently transformed in place for conservation and for exhibition of works of art. The use of historical buildings as museums leads to limitations in the management and distribution of exhibition space, in design and managing HVAC systems and in the achievement of targets relating to the continuous monitoring of the microclimate for people comfort and for preservation of works of art. Moreover, the costs of the operation and maintenance of the HVAC system for this particular type of confined environment are often very expensive and the proper optimization of the required operations plays a main role. In this paper, authors propose a new decision support tool for curators regarding the operation and maintenance management of HVAC systems in museums especially in the case of their belonging to cultural heritage buildings.

A Case Study to the Evaluation of Global Environmental Quality, Concerning Thermal, Acoustic and Atmospheric Conditions of Urban Areas

In this paper we propose an operative procedure aimed at assessing and check the global environmental quality in the urban areas. This methodology is set up by using an ergonomic approach that analyses the interaction man-environment in terms of cause-effect and uses information and data from various sources contributing to the formation of discomfort degrees.[1-2] The representation technique by normo-grams is used for showing some applications executed along the urban territory of Palermo and allows to evaluate very simply all the parameters involved in human comfort. This paper is divided in 5 sections, after the introduction in section 2 a review of the principal simple and complex indexes is presented, in section 3 the methodology used to assess the air quality is presented and in section 4 some experimental results on some areas of Palermo are presented, finally in section 5 some conclusions are drawn.[3-4]

Energy and Environmental Assessment of Retrofit Actions on a Residential Building

Energy and environmental performances of buildings strictly depend on many factors related to the choice of construction materials, technical equipment, installation and use. In the following chapter a set of retrofit actions to improve the thermal performance of an existing conventional building is presented. The energy and environmental assessment of these actions is carried out following a life cycle approach. The embodied energy and the environmental impacts arisen from the production, transportation and installation phases of the required materials and components are calculated. Further, energy saving and environmental benefits and drawbacks concerning the assessed retrofit actions are accounted for.